Gold was up for a fifth day on Wednesday as geopolitical risks over North Korea remained elevated, and as low US inflation concerns left some Federal Reserve officials backing delays in further interest rate hikes. Spot gold was up 0.1 per cent at $1,339.87 per ounce by 0101 GMT, after touching its highest level since early September at $1,344.21 in the previous session. US gold futures for December delivery were nearly unchanged at $1,345.00.

Asian stocks tracked Wall Street's slide overnight to slip on Wednesday while the dollar was on the defensive, with tensions in the Korean Peninsula showing little signs of abating. A top North Korean diplomat on Tuesday warned that his country is ready to send "more gift packages" to the United States as world powers struggled for a response to Pyongyang's latest nuclear weapons test.

The Federal Reserve should delay raising US interest rates until it is confident inflation will rebound, an influential policymaker said on Tuesday, the clearest signal yet that the Fed is getting more dovish in the face of weak data.

New orders for US-made goods recorded their biggest drop in nearly three years in July, but demand for capital goods was stronger than previously reported, pointing to a faster pace of business spending early in the third quarter.

Euro zone government bond yields dipped on Tuesday as attention shifted from tensions over North Korea to an approaching European Central Bank meeting that could shed light on the timing for an unwinding of massive monetary stimulus.

Business activity in the euro zone stayed robust in August as it outpaced Britain, where an economy increasingly bogged down by Brexit worries lost momentum, surveys showed on Tuesday.